2014-11-06 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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Mr. Mitchell stated the public is concerned about the County usage of vehicles. His recommendation is to have Hawai‘i County use a GPS vehicle monitoring system, which Maui and other agencies on the mainland are currently using. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked how much it would cost to implement the GPS vehicle monitoring system. Mr. Mitchell stated he does not know the exact cost, but will research it. He seems to think there is new software, cutting edge GPS programs that small police forces are using and seems there might be a new GPS program to investigate. Ms. Maddox asked if this would be implemented for all County vehicles. Mr. Mitchell replied yes. Ms. Garson asked if the Commission could take a one minute break to switch the telephone meeting from the cell phone to the land line phone. Ms. Maddox agreed and said the meeting will reconvene in one minute. Meeting recessed at 2:02 p.m. Meeting reconvened at 2:03 p.m. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked Ms. Garson to go through the process of discussing the recommendations and if the recommendations need to be accepted once they are discussed. Ms. Garson stated the Commission doesn’t have to accept it right away, they can move it forward. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked if the Commission is unsure of a recommendation, can they move it forward and if they want to include a recommendation, it would not be included in the next agenda. Ms. Garson said yes, they can make a motion to include the recommendation in the report and it will be set aside until they are ready to put it in the draft report. Ms. Maddox asked that if the Commission agrees on a specific recommendation, are they bound to the wording or can they wordsmith it when it is put into the draft report. Ms. Garson said they can wordsmith it. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked if the voting needs to be unanimous or majority when making recommendations. Ms. Garson said voting is majority. Ms. Maddox asked Mr. Mitchell to clarify his recommendation that mileage reports are to be mandated and timely. Mr. Mitchell said there should be a uniformed, clear policy across all County departments to gain more trust from the public in which all departments are following a clear and honest policy. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked Mr. Mitchell if his definition of policy is who’s allowed to take vehicles home and when can they use the vehicles. Mr. Mitchell replied yes and it’s stated in the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, but the reports vary by departments and those reports should be uniformed. Ms. Kelly asked if the GPS vehicle monitoring system should implemented County-wide. Mr. Mitchell said he would like to be respectful to each department, but ideally County-wide. Ms. Kierkiewicz asked for clarification on mileage reports being mandated, timely and clear uniform policies. Mr. Mitchell replied it doesn’t seem there are weekly. Biweekly, or monthly reports; seems to be according to department and according to that particular department head. He stated it should be more professional across all County agencies and those reports are not mandated by the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes. Mr. Mitchell thinks making the reports weekly or biweekly would bring more public trust for the use of County vehicles. Ms. Kelly asked if this would apply to all County vehicles and reimbursements for use of personal vehicles for the purpose of County work. Mr. Mitchell stated he is not including the use of personal vehicles; it is very specific to County vehicles only. 7